Thomas Sopwith
Encyclopedia
Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, CBE
, Hon FRAeS (18 January 1888 – 27 January 1989) was an English
aviation
pioneer and yachtsman.
, London
on 18 January 1888. He was the eighth child and only son of Thomas Sopwith, a civil engineer. He was educated at Cottesmore School
in Hove and at Seafield Park engineering college in Hill Head
.
When he was ten years old, whilst on a family holiday on the Isle of Lismore, near Oban
in Scotland
, a gun lying across young Thomas's knee went off, killing his father. This accident haunted Sopwith for the rest of his life.
In his youth, he was an expert ice skater
and played in goal
during Princes Ice Hockey Club
's 1908 match with C. P. P. Paris and during the 1909–10 season. He also played on the Great Britain national ice hockey team which won the gold medal at the first ever European Championships in 1910.
passenger flight. His first flight was with Gustave Blondeau in a Farman
at Brooklands
. He soon taught himself to fly on a Howard Wright Avis monoplane and took to the air on his own for the first time on 22 October 1910. Unfortunately he crashed after travelling about 300 yards (275 m). He soon improved and on 22 November was awarded Royal Aero Club
Aviation Certificate No. 31, flying a Howard Wright 1910 Biplane.
On 18 December 1910, Sopwith won a £
4,000 prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British built aeroplane. He flew 169 miles (272 km) in 3 hours 40 minutes. He used the winnings to set up the Sopwith School of Flying at Brooklands.
In June 1912 Sopwith with Fred Sigrist and others set up The Sopwith Aviation Company
. The company produced more than 18,000 British World War I
aircraft for the allied forces, including 5,747 of the famous Sopwith Camel
single-seat fighter. Sopwith was awarded the CBE
in 1918.
Bankrupted after the war by the punitive anti-profiteering taxes, he re-entered the business a few years later with a new firm named after his chief engineer and test pilot, Harry Hawker
. Sopwith was chairman of the new firm, Hawker Aircraft
.
After the nationalization of what was by then Hawker Siddeley, he continued to work as a consultant as late as 1980.
He became a Knight Bachelor
in 1953.
His 100th birthday was marked by a flypast
of military aircraft over his home. He died in Hampshire
on 27 January 1989, aged 101. His grave and that of his wife Phyllis Brodie Sopwith can be found in the grounds of the 11th-century All Saints Church
at Little Somborne
near Winchester
.
His authorized biography is Pure Luck by Alan Bramson, with a foreword by the Prince of Wales
(ISBN 1-85260-263-5).
Sir Thomas was interviewed on 8 November 1978 by the art historian Anna Malinovska. The interview is reproduced in Voices in Flight (Pen & Sword Books, 2006).
He was a member of the Air Squadron.
with his J-class yacht
s, Endeavour
in 1934, and Endeavour II in 1937. Both yachts were designed by Charles E. Nicholson
. Sopwith funded, organized and helmed the yachts. He did not win the Cup but he became a Cup legend by nearly winning it in 1934. He was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame
in 1995.
In 1927 Sopwith commissioned yacht builders Camper and Nicholsons
to build a luxury motor yacht he named Vita. She was sold in 1929 to Sir John Shelley-Rolls who re-named her Alastor.During World War II
the Royal Navy commandeered her to ferry provisions to Navy vessels moored at the entrance to Strangford Lough
. In 1946 a fire gutted her and she sank in Ringhaddy Sound at the back of Strangford Lough.
In 1937 Sopwith received the yacht Philante
, built for him by Camper and Nicholsons
. During the Second World War the ship was requisitioned by the Royal Navy
and used as a convoy escort vessel, HMS Philante. After the war the vessel was returned to Thomas Sopwith and he sold it to Norway
in 1947, to be used as a royal yacht for the Norwegian king.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, Hon FRAeS (18 January 1888 – 27 January 1989) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
pioneer and yachtsman.
Early life
Sopwith was born in KensingtonKensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 18 January 1888. He was the eighth child and only son of Thomas Sopwith, a civil engineer. He was educated at Cottesmore School
Cottesmore School
Cottesmore is a preparatory school in the United Kingdom, which has been preparing children for public schools since 1894. It is predominantly a full boarding school although there are a limited number of places for both weekly and day boarders...
in Hove and at Seafield Park engineering college in Hill Head
Hill Head
Hill Head is a residential area on the coast of the Solent. It is located south of Stubbington, west of Lee-on-the-Solent and south east of Titchfield, in the borough of Fareham, Hampshire. Hill Head is in the Gosport parliamentary constituency. Hill Head has a shingle beach with fishing, sailing,...
.
When he was ten years old, whilst on a family holiday on the Isle of Lismore, near Oban
Oban
Oban Oban Oban ( is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. It has a total resident population of 8,120. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William and during the tourist season the town can be crowded by up to 25,000 people. Oban...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, a gun lying across young Thomas's knee went off, killing his father. This accident haunted Sopwith for the rest of his life.
In his youth, he was an expert ice skater
Ice skating
Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
and played in goal
Goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...
during Princes Ice Hockey Club
Princes Ice Hockey Club
Princes Ice Hockey Club was one of the most influential early European ice hockey teams and is sometimes considered the first ice hockey club in Britain....
's 1908 match with C. P. P. Paris and during the 1909–10 season. He also played on the Great Britain national ice hockey team which won the gold medal at the first ever European Championships in 1910.
Career in aviation
Sopwith became interested in flying after seeing John Moisant flying the first cross-ChannelEnglish Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
passenger flight. His first flight was with Gustave Blondeau in a Farman
Henry Farman
Henri Farman Henri Farman Henri Farman (26 May 1874 – 17 July 1958 was a French pilot, aviator and aircraft designer and manufacturer with his brother Maurice Farman. His family was British and he took French nationality in 1937.-Biography:...
at Brooklands
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world's first purpose-built motorsport venue, as well as one of Britain's first airfields...
. He soon taught himself to fly on a Howard Wright Avis monoplane and took to the air on his own for the first time on 22 October 1910. Unfortunately he crashed after travelling about 300 yards (275 m). He soon improved and on 22 November was awarded Royal Aero Club
Royal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club is the national co-ordinating body for Air Sport in the United Kingdom.The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler, his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls , partly inspired by the Aero Club of France...
Aviation Certificate No. 31, flying a Howard Wright 1910 Biplane.
On 18 December 1910, Sopwith won a £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
4,000 prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British built aeroplane. He flew 169 miles (272 km) in 3 hours 40 minutes. He used the winnings to set up the Sopwith School of Flying at Brooklands.
In June 1912 Sopwith with Fred Sigrist and others set up The Sopwith Aviation Company
Sopwith Aviation Company
The Sopwith Aviation Company was a British aircraft company that designed and manufactured aeroplanes mainly for the British Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Flying Corps and later Royal Air Force in the First World War, most famously the Sopwith Camel...
. The company produced more than 18,000 British World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
aircraft for the allied forces, including 5,747 of the famous Sopwith Camel
Sopwith Camel
The Sopwith Camel was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter introduced on the Western Front in 1917. Manufactured by Sopwith Aviation Company, it had a short-coupled fuselage, heavy, powerful rotary engine, and concentrated fire from twin synchronized machine guns. Though difficult...
single-seat fighter. Sopwith was awarded the CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1918.
Bankrupted after the war by the punitive anti-profiteering taxes, he re-entered the business a few years later with a new firm named after his chief engineer and test pilot, Harry Hawker
Harry Hawker
Harry George Hawker MBE, AFC, was an Australian aviation pioneer and co-founder of Hawker Aircraft, the firm that would later be responsible for a long series of successful military aircraft.-Early life:...
. Sopwith was chairman of the new firm, Hawker Aircraft
Hawker Aircraft
Hawker Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer responsible for some of the most famous products in British aviation history.-History:...
.
After the nationalization of what was by then Hawker Siddeley, he continued to work as a consultant as late as 1980.
He became a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1953.
His 100th birthday was marked by a flypast
Flypast
Flypast is a term used in the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and other countries to denote ceremonial or honorific flights by groups of aircraft and, rarely, by a single aircraft...
of military aircraft over his home. He died in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
on 27 January 1989, aged 101. His grave and that of his wife Phyllis Brodie Sopwith can be found in the grounds of the 11th-century All Saints Church
All Saints Church, Little Somborne
All Saints Church, Little Somborne, is a redundant Anglican church in the hamlet of Little Somborne, Hampshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust...
at Little Somborne
Little Somborne
Little Somborne is a hamlet in the civil parish of Somborne of the Test Valley district in Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Stockbridge, which lies approximately 2.3 miles north-west from the hamlet....
near Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
.
His authorized biography is Pure Luck by Alan Bramson, with a foreword by the Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
(ISBN 1-85260-263-5).
Sir Thomas was interviewed on 8 November 1978 by the art historian Anna Malinovska. The interview is reproduced in Voices in Flight (Pen & Sword Books, 2006).
He was a member of the Air Squadron.
Yachting
Sopwith challenged the America's CupAmerica's Cup
The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
with his J-class yacht
J-class yacht
The J-Class serves as a rating for large sailing yachts designed between 1930 and 1937. Reserved for a wealthy elite of yachtsmen, these boats were used to compete with the best sailing talents in three races of the America's Cup.-The 1930s:...
s, Endeavour
Endeavour (Yacht)
Endeavour is a J-class yacht built for the 1934 America's Cup by Camper and Nicholson in Gosport, Portsmouth Harbour, England. She was built for Thomas Sopwith who used his aviation design expertise to ensure the yacht was the most advanced of its day with a steel hull and mast...
in 1934, and Endeavour II in 1937. Both yachts were designed by Charles E. Nicholson
Charles Ernest Nicholson
-Biography:He was born in 1868.Nicholson's first design of note was the Redwing class. The Bembridge sailing club met in October 1896 to agree the need for a shallow draughted yacht - to allow for the shoal waters of Bembridge Harbour - which could be sailed single-handed, to replace the expensive...
. Sopwith funded, organized and helmed the yachts. He did not win the Cup but he became a Cup legend by nearly winning it in 1934. He was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame
America's Cup Hall of Fame
The America's Cup Hall of Fame, located at the Herreshoff Marine Museum of Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, honors individuals for outstanding achievement in the America's Cup sailing competition...
in 1995.
In 1927 Sopwith commissioned yacht builders Camper and Nicholsons
Camper and Nicholsons
Camper and Nicholsons are the oldest leisure marine company in the world, producing and managing yachts for the world's richest people.As Camper and Nicholsons was founded at Gosport, Hampshire before organised seawater yachting had even started, John Nicholson of the founding family once overheard...
to build a luxury motor yacht he named Vita. She was sold in 1929 to Sir John Shelley-Rolls who re-named her Alastor.During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the Royal Navy commandeered her to ferry provisions to Navy vessels moored at the entrance to Strangford Lough
Strangford Lough
Strangford Lough, sometimes Strangford Loch, is a large sea loch or inlet in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the Irish Sea by the Ards Peninsula. The name Strangford is derived ; describing the fast-flowing narrows at its mouth...
. In 1946 a fire gutted her and she sank in Ringhaddy Sound at the back of Strangford Lough.
In 1937 Sopwith received the yacht Philante
HNoMY Norge
One of only two remaining Royal Yachts in Europe, HNoMY Norge is the Royal Yacht of the King of Norway. The ship's name Norge is Norwegian for Norway....
, built for him by Camper and Nicholsons
Camper and Nicholsons
Camper and Nicholsons are the oldest leisure marine company in the world, producing and managing yachts for the world's richest people.As Camper and Nicholsons was founded at Gosport, Hampshire before organised seawater yachting had even started, John Nicholson of the founding family once overheard...
. During the Second World War the ship was requisitioned by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
and used as a convoy escort vessel, HMS Philante. After the war the vessel was returned to Thomas Sopwith and he sold it to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
in 1947, to be used as a royal yacht for the Norwegian king.
External links
- http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/sopwith.html
- Portrait Sculpture of Thomas Sopwith
- Library of Congress Picture of Tom Sopwith
- Library of Congress Picture of Tom Sopwith on Airplane